What is new in Biotech

Two kernels of the same idea – cultivating protein quality in cereal grains – are reaching maturity at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
The quality of protein often gets overshadowed amid the spotlight on its quantity. But that quality – the presence or absence of amino acids essential to the diets of humans and livestock – occupies the mind...

In 2000, when Bennett Greenspan, President and Founder of Gene-by-Gene Ltd. and FamilyTreeDNA, launched FamilyTreeDNA as the first direct-to-consumer DNA testing company, he never imagined that it would lead to the creation of a booming industry.
An avid genealogist, Greenspan created FamilyTreeDNA to help other family researchers solve problems...

In a study with significant implications for human organ transplantation, researchers have successfully grown functional mouse kidneys inside rats from just a few donor stem cells. The results of the study, led by researchers from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Japan, will be published in an upcoming issue of Nature...

As powerful as the human brain is, once it's damaged it can't really recover completely. Now researchers at Penn State may have found a way to boost the brain's regenerative abilities, using certain molecules to convert neighboring cells into new neurons. The technique could eventually lead to pills that treat brain injuries, stroke or...

At some point during human evolution, a handful of genetic changes triggered a dramatic threefold expansion of the brain's neocortex, the wrinkly outermost layer of brain tissue responsible for everything from language to self-awareness to abstract thought.
Identifying what drove this evolutionary shift is fundamental to understanding what makes...

Vaccines have saved millions of lives, but nobody likes getting a shot. That's why scientists are trying to develop oral vaccines for infectious diseases.
But to be effective, the vaccine must survive digestion and reach immune cells within the intestinal wall. Now, researchers reporting in the ACS journal Nano Letters have developed oral...

Scientists in Australia are looking at some pretty creative ways to tackle the Zika virus, which continues to pose a risk to millions across Africa, Asia and parts of the Americas. Following a trial last year where researchers were able to decimate disease-spreading mosquitos in the country's north, scientists have now demonstrated an engineering...

The wonder-material graphene could hold the key to unlocking the next generation of advanced, early stage lung cancer diagnosis.
A team of scientists from the University of Exeter has developed a new technique that could create a highly sensitive graphene biosensor with the capability to detect molecules of the most common lung cancer...

U.S. government agencies monitoring fisheries, endangered species, and environmental impacts ought to leverage the DNA present in every drop of seawater, say the organizers of a conference on marine environmental DNA (eDNA), held at Rockefeller University in New York City in November 2018.
Biological surveys based on eDNA are reliable and poised...

MIT researchers have developed an ingestible pill that swells up to the size of a ping-pong ball upon reaching the stomach, allowing it to remain in the body and take measurements from within – for weeks at a time. The pill's creators hope that it could be used for a multitude of purposes, from tracking stomach pH levels to observing the growth...